The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Presently there is a growing interest in making more efficient use of conference rooms, offices, and other spaces within work place environments such as office buildings and technical center buildings. Often it is impossible or difficult to track, in real time, the actual usage of such areas within an building. This may result in a relatively small group of individuals making use of a large conference room when a smaller conference room, at a different location within the same building, is available for use. Another situation that occurs is where a conference being held in a conference room ends early (i.e., before the end of a reserved time slot), but this information is not made available to others within the building who may be looking for a conference room to use. Still another example is where a group of individuals begin making use of a conference room without having reserved the use of the conference beforehand with the appropriate person/department. A subsequent group of individuals may reserve the same conference room and then travel to the conference room only to find that it is already occupied.
The same drawbacks apply to buildings where workers do not have an assigned office space, but instead seek out an open cubicle or office. Such workers may be those who primarily work out of their homes, and occasionally (maybe once or twice weekly) come into the office for short periods of time to do work. Often such workers may not know where the nearest “open” office or cubicle is. Some real time occupancy detection/monitoring system could provide real time information to these workers which help them to quickly identify the closest available office, cubicle or work area where they can set up their laptop, tablet, etc., and begin work.
Still other areas where real time occupancy detection is lacking is in the usage of other facilities such as auditoriums, cafeterias, etc. In some buildings, workers may have a significant walk to a cafeteria, only to find out that the cafeteria is at or near maximum occupancy. If a given worker had known this beforehand, she/may have delayed a visit to the cafeteria for a short time, maybe 30 minutes or so, until the cafeteria was not so busy. Likewise, a worker working in a large office building may not be aware that a seminar being given in an auditorium is filled to capacity, and may walk a good distance to the auditorium only to learn of this fact. Having this type of information available, in real time, to each individual present within the building would help to maximize the utilization of all available meeting spaces within the building. This type of occupancy information would also likely help increase productivity of workers by providing immediate, real time information to workers within a building which rooms are occupied and which are not, and thus eliminating instances where a group of workers must spend time trying to find an occupied room for a meeting which is suitable for the number of individuals in the group.